The two women standing guard notice the stone and leave to investigate it. To their credit they do leave one of their member standing near the door, but with her attention on her partner's investigation she doesn't notice you slip by her and inside the Orchestra Hall.

You follow the women through the backstage area of the Orchestra Hall unnoticed. Eventually they halt just before the doors leading to the stage of one of the concert halls. With a few quick hand signals the leader orders her troops to position themselves on both sides of the doors where they wait with whips and knives drawn. You realize they are waiting in ambush for someone to come backstage through the doors.

Sunhawk who is onstage doesn't know it yet, but all of the women have readied actions to attack the first person who comes through the doors. I will resolve your action first before Sunhawk's if he decides to go backstage.

You sneak by the robots with no problem. As you cautiously approach them you see the robots gathered around a strange humanoid figure swathed in a green cloak who seems more machine than man. Cybernetic eyes glow red from his skull, his fingers end in mechanical tentacles and cables, his chest is a mess of electromechanical augments and the stink of chemicals and lubricant wafts by in the wind.

"INFORMING GENERAL METALLURGE OF MISSION STATUS," the robots report. "TARGET NOT DETECTED."

"Hmm," the green-robed figure thinks aloud, rubbing his chin. "But the intelligence did suggest that Locust's earliest base was in this area. Could Iron Maiden have made a mistake? Well, nevermind. If we can't find him... we'll just have to level the entire place!"

He sweeps an arm to indicate the entire city block. "Plant seismic charges. Deploy fusion detonators. I want this entire neighbourhood a smoking crater within the hour!"

Neither Metallurge nor the robots notice you. If you attack them you get a surprise round.

As you land, all six robots turn their weapons on you with a chorus of mechanical clicking, bolts slamming home and high-energy whines. Behind you, you hear the sound of the door banging against your force shield and the muffled voice of a child asking "Mommy, why isn't it opening?"

It's quickly followed by an adult's panicked "get away from there, it's dangerous!" As the patter of their footsteps fades from behind you, you know the humans are safe -- at least for now.

Morgan didn't waste a moment. He turned and ran backstage immediately. Sure, he'd superheroed enough for danger, but the hell? Who were those BDSM types? Why were they attacking him? .....Did they know?

His voice fades into insignificance as your form swells and grows into its vast biomechanical form. The six robots, Forge, and Amethyst -- whom he's holding off the ground by the front of her top -- all turn to look at you, and you are rewarded with the sweet sweet taste of Forge's face in an 'oh crap' grimace. Amethyst instantly brightens.

Just to be sure, the woman points both hands at the corpse and incinerates it, turning it into a charred skeleton in a single blinding ray of fire.

"I got the magician," you hear her say to nobody in particular; you realize she is using some sort of communications device.

"Yes, I burnt the corpse. Do you think I'd fall for a stupid trick like that again?"

"And how exactly do you manage to run into trouble against that pink-haired skank? She has help? Forge, you idiot! I'm on my way."

She flies off. Mr Langley nods in approval, and you get the sense he is more impressed than he would have been if you'd just went and started slugging it out with her. "Elegantly done," he says, dabbing at the corner of his lips with a napkin. "But I suppose you'll want to investigate what she's up to. Our discussion's been a pleasure, Mr. Desportes," he says, shaking hands. "I wish you luck in all your endeavors."

I admit I didn't expect that. Create Object is a pretty clever solution, and you fool her.

As you land, all six robots turn their weapons on you with a chorus of mechanical clicking, bolts slamming home and high-energy whines. Behind you, you hear the sound of the door banging against your force shield and the muffled voice of a child asking "Mommy, why isn't it opening?"

It's quickly followed by an adult's panicked "get away from there, it's dangerous!" As the patter of their footsteps fades from behind you, you know the humans are safe -- at least for now.

You charge through the assembled robots like a wrecking ball laying waste to LEGO toys and demolish them so thoroughly that a rain of robot parts falls over everyone in a 50-foot radius.

"Why, you," growls Forge. "Nobody... and I mean NOBODY... gets in the way of one of Forge's beatdowns. Die!" He swings his right arm at you, a massive cybernetic power hammer, but fails to connect even though the dreadful weapon digs a three-foot-deep furrow in the asphalt.

The girl in purple and pink takes the chance to fly out of Forge's grasp. "Thanks for the help!" she draws twin blaster pistols and peppers Forge with low-powered shots that explode against his power armor. None of them do any real damage but, they do take his attention off you.

The Iron Men can't pass that save even on a 20, so they're wiped out.Attacking the Iron Men brings you in touch range of Forge since they are all clustered together.

Amethyst Move action: Fly vertically 30ft into the air and some distance backStandard action: Aid action on you for +2 attackAmethyst Aid DC 10 Grotesk (1d20+8=17) You have +2 attack until the start of her next turn

"Likewise," smiles Nicolas. "I hate to cut this short but yes, I had better be off in pursuit. We'll be in touch, I'm sure." Placing a few crisp bills on the table to cover both of them, shooting Langley another self-deprecating smile to deflect any objection, he hastens to the front door of the restaurant, peers back in the fiery woman's direction for a moment, and steps through. A returning waiter following close on his heels opens the door to emptiness: Nicolas is already gone.

Many blocks away, the magician emerges from a security door on a rooftop not far from where the glowing woman is now. She moves past in a blur, leaving him far behind in seconds. With a long-suffering French sigh and a mocking wipe of his brow, Nicolas scans the buildings in the direction she's moving for another port of entry, and finding one, steps back into the doorway and vanishes, leaving only the lingering echo of a muttered complaint: "Why couldn't she have told the guy where she was going so I could meet her there?"

OOC wrote:I'll follow her this way until I can't or we get where she's going, assuming she doesn't threaten anyone on the way.

Liam takes his hoverboard up high as he draws his sword. The familiar hum of the vibro-blade kicks on as soon as he pulls it from it's sheath.

Then he drops down at full speed into the center of the group. The sword flashes with blinding speed and he cuts the robots to ribbons.

"Hi. Looking for me?"

HP for Takedown Attack.Assuming the robots are minions; Take 10 for a 19Drain Toughness 9 (Affects Objects, Instant Recovery) then DC24 ToughnessHouse Rules say they get a Reflex save vs the Drain. That was intended for PCs and non-minions, but since I didn't put that in there, I will leave it to you to decide.

Moving silently through the shadows it was almost too easy following the group of wannabe porn stars. Imogen quickly realised that the group of women knew where they wanted to go and weren't just there to cause mindless damage.

At the sight of some of the women laying an ambush outside the door to one of the stages Imogen consider singing a song for them but quickly realised that there was the chance that anyone out on the stage could be caught in the sonic blast.

Springing out of the shadows Imogen moved to attack the group of women with a collection of swift kicks, kidney punches and the odd rabbit punch to mix things up.

Take 10 if minions to attack, 22 to hit and DC21 Toughness Save. Imogen will use Takedown 2 which should mean she can reach everyone round the door.

The women are all clad in leather dominatrix gear and half-masks, and whirl about in surprise as you burst out of cover. "It's Nightbird! Alert Iron Maiden and call for reinforcement!" one screams.

Before they can do anything of the sort Nightbird blitzes them with a lightning-fast assault of martial arts strikes. In the space of seconds she leaves one stuffed upside-down into a wastebasket, a second half-strangled with her own whip, a third curled up on the ground whimpering, one more hanging unconscious from the ceiling fan, number five staggering around with her head stuffed into a French horn and the last knocked out cold and drooling into the carpet. The remaining two -- one of which is the leader -- draw whips and lash out with remarkable accuracy but Nightbird's speed and skill are too much for them. The whips sing and fail to hit anything but air.

At that moment Sunhawk, still out of costume, bursts right through the door and into the melee and the two women turn to face him.

Both of you can see the four Excruciatrices outside have abandoned the sniper rifle and are closing in to attack in close range.

The blast of blue energy burns out sensors, fries their armor and shatters powertrains, leaving five of the robots as smoking piles of wreckage on the ground. The last robot swivels its head as it looks around at the wrecked enemies, then turns back to stare at you.

"LONG LIVE LORD STEEL, THE IRON EMPEROR!" it delcares. Then it blows up in your face.

DC 16 Reflex save followed by DC 21 (18) Toughness save.

"Gelert!" Tabitha bursts out of the door, now that your forcefield is no longer blocking it, followed by Dorothy. Jasmine is in her mother's arms next to the door, looking slack-jawed at the wreckage. "Are you alright?"

"You've got to help them," Dorothy says. She shows you a live news report on her phone. There are scenes of panicked citizens pouring out of the Orchestra Hall and the caption reads 'LIVE: Sniper Attack at Symphony Center'.